ANTELOPE FAMILY 



37 



five inches long and three inches broad, and 

 sh.arply pointed at the extremities, are covered 

 with hair, both within and without. The earlier 

 statement, that the female has no horns, is at 

 variance with the obr-ervation of the animal 

 by Dr. Caton, who says : " The horn of the 

 female cannot be detected on the kid,- on the 

 yearling it can easily be felt ; later I have found 

 them half an inch long . . . and it is only on 

 the fully adult female that the horn appears 

 above the hair. I have never met one more than 

 one inch long, but others have found them three 



not skulk or attempt to elude observation. 

 Colonel Roosevelt, who hunted the animal for 

 several years, says : " Its sole aim is to be able 

 to see its enemies, and it cares nothing whatever 

 aboi;t its enemies seeing it." When lying down 

 for their noonday siesta, Pronghorns will even 

 " choose a somewhat conspicuous station and 

 trust to their own powers of observation, exactly 

 as they do when feeding." Its powers of sight 

 are much greater than those of the Deer, and it 

 seems to divine intuitively the intentions of the 

 hunter. On this jioint Mr. Arthur ^^^ du Bray 



,1 pl^' ^ 



i- ',> 



ANTELOPES AT HOME 

 The most picturesque and the fleetest of all our North American quadrupeds 



inches long." In an average-sized buck the 

 horns are usually about twelve inches long (an 

 exceptionally large pair measured seventeen 

 inches), with width of twelve and one-half 

 inches between the tips, and are situated directly 

 over the eyes. At the tips they are curved back- 

 ward a little, and they have a short forward 

 branch or prong. 



The coloration of the Pronghorn renders it 

 a very conspicuous object in the landscape. It is 

 a striking combination of russet, white and black 

 (see details above). The tail is white with just 

 a few tawny hairs on the top. 



In several of its characteristics the Prong- 

 horn differs materially from the Deer. It does 



says he entirely agrees with the following dictum 

 of one of his old guides : " What a live Ante- 

 lope don't see between dawn and dark isn't 

 visible from his standpoint ; and while you're a 

 gawking at him thro' that 'ere glass to make out 

 whether he's a rock or a goat, he's a countin' 

 your cartridges and fixin's, and makin' up his 

 mind which wav he'll scoot when you disappear 

 in the draw to sneak on 'im — and don't you 

 forget it." 



In a wild state, the curiosity of Pronghorns is 

 so great that it often leads them to their destruc- 

 tion. In the old days of the ])rairie-schooner, 

 the animals, attracted by the white canvas cover- 

 ing of that vehicle, would come so near that 



